Oh magnificent Oracle, who always has the best Halloween costume:

Who is the Greenwich, and why do we allow her to keep the world's time?

The Greenwich is the consort of the Green Man, a nature spirit from the Celtic mythology of the British Isles. So the story goes, way back in the mists of history, the Time Being decided to delegate some of his authority by appointing one of the many wiches who existed back then, as guardian for the world's time. The choice eventually came down to three wiches: The Sandwich, the Norwich, and the Greenwich. Each of them was asked to demonstrate her qualifications for the job.

The Sandwich worked day and night for a month, and fused sand into an hourglass the likes of which the world had never seen, one hundred ells high and fifty broad, which would keep time precisely, down to the smallest part of a second.

The Norwich was determined to do even better. She set all the stars in their courses to revolving around her favorite (the North Star), in perfect lock-step synchronization, forming a precision clock the size of the entire cosmos. The stars continue in these circular paths to this day.

The Greenwich, seeing what the other two had done, calmly raised her hand and called upon the forces of nature, and the Sandwich and the Norwich were immediately whisked away by an immense storm, never to be heard from again.

Thus, the Greenwich was appointed as the guardian of earthly time for the simple reason that she can be really mean when she doesn't get her way. Hence the term "Greenwich Mean Time."

You owe the Oracle a propitiation, for the Time Being.

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